Dundalk, MD Crime Map

Dundalk, MD Safety Overview: What the Data Actually Shows

With a population of 63,826 and an overall crime grade of C+, Dundalk, Maryland presents a more nuanced safety picture than that single letter might suggest. When you drill down to the neighborhood level, the data becomes notably encouraging: all three analyzed neighborhoods earned an A-range grade, meaning 100% of Dundalk's measured areas fall into the safest tier. Not a single neighborhood scored a B, C, D, or F. That kind of across-the-board consistency is worth paying attention to, especially for anyone making decisions about where to live, rent, or commute.

Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood Breakdown

The safest neighborhood in the analyzed dataset is Saint Helena, which earned a straight A grade. It's a small, tight-knit area with a population of just 192 and a median household income of $59,551 — modestly above Dundalk's citywide median of $55,489. Close behind are Dundalk Marine Terminal (Grade A-, population 623, median income $63,694) and Graceland Park (Grade A-, population 1,534, median income $67,876). Graceland Park and Dundalk Marine Terminal also represent the relatively higher-crime end of the local spectrum, though it bears emphasizing that both still hold A- ratings. In practical terms, the gap between Dundalk's safest and its most crime-affected analyzed neighborhoods is narrow — all three land in the same grade tier.

Understanding the Grade Distribution

The grade distribution across Dundalk's analyzed neighborhoods is unusually uniform. One hundred percent of neighborhoods earned an A-range grade, and the combined safe rate — neighborhoods scoring A or B — stands at 100%. This stands in some contrast to the citywide C+ overall crime grade, which reflects a broader set of metrics including raw incident counts across the full 63,826-person population. The neighborhood-level grades, however, suggest that when crime does occur, it is not concentrated in isolated pockets dragging down the rest of the community. Dundalk's population density of 1,882 residents per square mile and a poverty rate of 16.5% are real socioeconomic pressures, but they have not translated into dramatic neighborhood-level safety disparities within the areas analyzed.

Property Crime vs. Violent Crime Patterns

Dundalk's C+ overall grade reflects the reality that a working-class community with a 7.1% unemployment rate and a median home value of $155,131 faces property crime pressures that are common in similar mid-density suburban areas near major port infrastructure. Property-related incidents — vehicle theft, burglary, and opportunistic theft — tend to be the primary driver of crime statistics in communities with Dundalk's economic profile. Violent crime, while not absent, is generally less prevalent relative to property offenses in neighborhoods like Graceland Park and Dundalk Marine Terminal, both of which sit near industrial and transit corridors. The A- grades those neighborhoods hold suggest that even elevated exposure to property crime risk has not pushed them into genuinely dangerous territory.

How the Crime Map Supports Real Decisions

For Dundalk residents and prospective newcomers, an interactive crime map is more than a curiosity — it's a practical planning tool. Home buyers weighing a property in Graceland Park (median income $67,876, Grade A-) can cross-reference recent incident types before making an offer on a home in a market where the median home value is $155,131. Renters comparing units near the Dundalk Marine Terminal corridor, where median rent citywide sits at $1,178, can assess whether a slightly lower-priced unit comes with a trade-off in local safety. Daily commuters traveling through Saint Helena or other neighborhoods can identify patterns in the timing and location of property incidents to make smarter route and parking decisions. The map converts raw police data into something actionable, giving residents the same information that was once available only to insurers and developers.